Send in your heavyweight slugger to KO George Foreman

Yes Dempsey, George would have a hard time hitting him clean, Jack could hit him pretty easily.

 

Liston, Tyson, Lewis, Holmes, possibly Vitali K. I would also give Foreman a puncher’s chance to knock any of them out as well.

 

I was thinking about that. Sure Joe packed a mean hook, but I wouldnt qualify him like a slugger...

 

They fought when Foreman was almost 50, and even then Foreman was robbed in that fight.

 

But an old Foreman? He stood his ground and used his chin well. Still could be shaken up, but not dropped.

 

As much as many people here will laugh at your assertion here, & even though I consider the result to be scarcely in doubt (Foreman KO’s Dempsey for sure), I will say this…the first round between these two would be an instant classic.

 

Dempsey with peds and modern training with 15-20 pounds more muscles and even better speed/polished skills would have a high chance of knocking out young Foremam.

 

But you're doing two things here. You're giving Jack 20lbs of extra muscle and better speed? It doesn't work like that. You have to rob Peter to pay Paul. You want to be stronger? Add muscle. But you lose speed. That's the deal.

And you're also saying that with better polished skills, Dempsey would have a high chance of knocking him out. That's a totally different fighter. Again, it's about robbing Peter. You give Jack modern training, you take away that primeval Hobo mean spirit that made him so fearsome. Jack didn't have modern training and more polished skills. He was what he was.

Add 20lbs, you take away some of that speed. Add modern training, you take away the killer instinct and hunger. Mentally and physically, he's a different animal.

 

I am talking about Dempsey with peds and modern training but also with killer instinct and hobo mentality, I think that way he could KO Foreman but Dempsey 1919 would lose same way Lyle did while giving Foreman helluva fight.

 

Okay but if you're only giving fighters the good things from the olden days as well as the good things from modern boxing without compromising, the list of fighters who might beat Foreman is a bit longer than just Dempsey.

If we can pack 20lbs of muscle on a man and give him extra speed, modern nutrition while he maintains the hunger and drive of a starving tiger, we're stacking the deck very unfairly against George.

How about we take 20lbs off Lennox Lewis to give him extra speed but at no detriment to his strength? And while we're at it, give him the vicious instinct of a starving turn of the century hobo even though he has modern diet, nutrition, training methods and sleeps in silk pyjamas. No way George survives that Lennox.

 

Well you have a point but still it is unfair to compare fighters who fought for food with fighters who fought for money with all modern training and peds.

 

I agree. I don't think you can which is why I try and avoid generational debates.

Besides modern nutrition and training, the sport has evolved. Travel has enabled fighters to spar with many different fighters, gain advice from many trainers. Video has given access to a whole world of learning. And there are generations of fighters and trainers who have passed down their knowledge. The odds are massively stacked in the more modern fighters' favour in H2Hs.

Of course, you can add caveats to even the score - make the older guy 25lbs heavier, give him access to modern training etc - but then you are creating a fighter that never existed. There's no sense adding a mythical 25lbs of solid muscle to Dempsey that wouldn't affect his speed or stamina any more than you could drop 30lbs off Foreman, giving him lightning speed and stamina to burn, without affecting his strength and power.

You can only be as good as you can be in your own generation which is why you can make a case that Dempsey is a greater champion than Foreman. But if you asked me who would win between the two, I'd say Foreman every time - and easily.

 

I agree, I think Foreman vs Dempsey would be like Foreman Lyle or Dempsey Firpo, with great slugfest with both men down.

 

& yet nobody has the skill-set of a Joe Louis today. By, “evolved,” you mean some things have improved? Yes, they have. But an awful lot has gone backwards as well, which doesn’t seem to go as noticed.